3D printing and wearable tech to transform Asia CIOs' role

Sheila Lam (Computerworld HK) |
Feb. 3, 2014

Among Gartner's latest top 10 predictions on global IT market, the rising of 3D printing and wearable tech are expected to be most significant to Asia's CIOs. The research firm noted the by 2018, 3D printing will result a minimum loss of US$100 billion per year from intellectual property (IP) theft.

Among Gartner's latest top 10 predictions on global IT market, the rising of 3D printing and wearable tech are expected to be most significant to Asia's CIOs. The research firm noted the by 2018, 3D printing will result a minimum loss of US$100 billion per year from intellectual property (IP) theft.

Manufacturers are expected to take the biggest hit, as 3D printers can allow IP theft to easily scan and produce large quantities of items that exactly replicate the original products, according to Michael Warrilow, research director at Gartner, in his recent visit in Hong Kong.

"At least one major western manufacturer will claim to have had IP stolen for a mainstream product by thieves using 3D printers (by 2015)," stated the firm.

Massive impact to Chinese manufacturers He said the accessibility of 3D printers can also tremendously bring down the cost and take the manufacturing locations much closer to consumers, reducing the value of low cost manufacturing plans in Asia, particularly in China.

"The potential impact [to the Chinese manufacturers] is massive, in a negative way," he said. "It is not going to get rid of manufacturing, but 3D printing will allow mass customization and personalization."

Apart from losing its advantage in cost competitiveness and customization, Chinese manufacturers also lack the ability to assert IP, creating a more challenging environment for them.

"This has already happened to music and it has happened to books in some degree," added Warrilow. "Industries are being transformed in the digital era, it is happening in the marketing (industry) right now, we believe manufacturers will go through the same with 3D printing as a catalyst."

The earlier the Asia and Chinese manufacturers and their CIOs realize the situation and prepare for it, the more likely they can reduce the risk. He said manufacturers could start looking at protective measures like stamping or sealing their products or working with insurance company to develop protection policies.

75% of sensitive data will not be protected Gartner also predicted that "by 2020, enterprises and government will fail to protect 75% of sensitive data, and declassify and grant broad/public access to it."

"The reason why is pretty clear because it's really unrealistic and unlikely to protect the vast amount of data," said Warrilow.

The research firm said at least one more Snowden or WikiLeaks moment will occur by 2015 and more NSA-like organizations will develop technics to access corporate data that both enterprises and governments will find it very challenging to protect. Instead of fencing all the data, he said enterprises should focus on data classification and apply maximum protection to only the top 25% of data.